Draft report on Carnivore snooping system is itself sniped

The Illinois Institute of Technology has released its draft report on the FBI's Carnivore e-mail monitoring system. While the report calls for some fine-tuning - for better protection of routine online communications from interception - it generally gives a seal of approval to the system. Reuters quotes the report as evaluating Carnivore to be "more effective in protecting privacy and enabling lawful surveillance" than alternatives. ...more

Teenage boy arrested over online sex charges

A 13-year-old boy in Taiwan has been arrested and charged with running an online sex ring. According to Associated Press, over a four-month period, the boy attracted over a hundred elementary and high school students to the site to join a `enjokosai` ring - a Japanese term for the practice of offering sexual services in return for gifts and money. However, the Taiwanese police are unsure whether the underage members actually made contact with clients. ...more

UK winner announced for Europe's IT awards

The Syngene division of Synoptics Ltd has been named as one of the 20 winners of this year's European Information Society Technologies Prize (EISTP). The EC and the European Council of Applied Sciences and Engineering (Euro-CASE) have announced 20 winners yesterday, three of which will be awarded a Grand Prize worth ?200,000 (?125,000). The EISTP is awarded to "groundbreaking products representing the best of European innovation in information technology", said a statement on the EU Web site. ...more

Sun revealed as second SCOsource licensee

An article run in Fortune magazine on Monday reveals that Sun and Microsoft are on the same side of the fence on a very big question: they've both licensed Unix from SCO. The article shows that the antics of tiny SCO have allowed the big guns to realign themselves in order to further their own battle strategies. Microsoft, which licensed the Unix operating system from SCO in May, must have jumped at the chance of using the small change of its cash reserves to take a swipe at IBM. ...more

O'Reilly discovers missing manuals

O'Reilly has come to the aid of consumers starved of software manuals. The leading computer book publisher is launching a series of books to help those whose PC programs comes with little or no documentation. Initially three titles will be available, covering Windows Millennium, Windows 2000 Pro and Quicken 2001. ...more